Vegan Air Fryer Doughnuts
Vegan air fryer doughnuts - these incredible cinnamon sugar yeast doughnuts are light, soft and very moreish!
Servings 9 doughnuts
Equipment
- Air Fryer
Ingredients
Tangzhong:
- 20 g (2 Tablespoons + 2 teaspoons) plain (all-purpose) flour
- 120 ml (½ cup) unsweetened non-dairy milk (I use soy)
Dough:
- all of the tangzhong
- 120 ml (½ cup) cold unsweetened non-dairy milk (soy is best)
- 40 g (3 ½ Tablespoons) caster or granulated sugar
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 150 g (1 ¼ cups) plain (all-purpose) flour
- 150 g (1 ¼ cups) white bread flour
- 7 g (2 ¼ teaspoons) fast action/instant yeast
- 40 g (3 Tablespoons) vegan butter/margarine softened
To Coat:
- 150 g (¾ cup) caster or granulated sugar
- 3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 60 g (¼ cup) vegan butter/margarine melted
Instructions
- To make the tangzhong, place the flour in a small pan and gradually whisk in the milk, making sure that there are no lumps.
- Place the pan over a medium/low heat and whisk constantly until the mixture has thickened to a paste/pudding-like consistency.
- Scrape the tangzhong into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook and pour the cold milk on top. This will cool the tangzhong down so that it doesn't kill the yeast.
- Add the sugar, salt and flours and finally the yeast. Stir until it forms a rough dough then mix on a high speed until the dough is very smooth and stretchy, about 5-10 minutes. It is quite a soft, sticky dough, resist the urge to add extra flour. You should be able to stretch a section of the dough thin enough to see light through it without it breaking (the windowpane test).
- Add the vegan butter and knead for about another 5 minutes until it is fully incorporated and the dough is smooth, elastic and no longer feels greasy. You may need to scrape down the sides of the bowl a couple of times. The dough should still be soft and sticky, but it should pull away from the sides of the bowl cleanly. If it seems too wet then you can knead in a little extra flour, a tablespoon at a time. Be careful though, this is meant to be a soft dough and adding too much extra flour will make the doughnuts dry.
- Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl, cover and place in a warm spot to rise for 1-2 hours until doubled in size.
- Knead the risen dough very briefly to knock out any air bubbles then roll out on a floured surface to about 2-2.5 cm (¾-1 in) thick.
- Use an approx 7 cm/2.75 inch round pastry cutter to cut out as many circles of dough as you can, then use a 2.5 cm/1 in one to cut a hole out of the centre of each (I used the wide end of a large piping nozzle as I didn't have a cutter small enough. Something like a bottle cap may also work). Knead together the scraps and re-roll to cut out more doughnuts.
- Spin each doughnut around your finger to widen the hole a little then place them well spaced apart on a lined baking sheet.
- Cover loosely with oiled clingfilm or baking parchment and set aside to rise for about 30-45 minutes until puffy. If you gently press the dough with your finger it should spring back slowly, and leave a slight indentation. If it springs back quickly then it needs a little longer, and if the dough deflates then it is over-prooved so keep an eye on it!
- Lightly grease the frying basket/ plate of an air fryer with some oil. Carefully transfer the doughnuts into the basket, making sure they are spaced apart (2-4 doughnuts at a time, depending on the size of your frying basket) and fry at 180°C/350℉ for 5 minutes until golden brown. Remove from the basket and repeat with the remaining doughnuts.
- Meanwhile, mix together the sugar and cinnamon in a wide bowl, and place the melted butter in another bowl.
- Dunk the warm doughnuts first in the melted butter, turning them to coat both sides, and then in the cinnamon sugar, making sure they are well coated. Serve asap.
Notes
- See post above for tips, details and step-by-step photos.
- As with all of my baking recipes I really do recommend using the metric measurements with a digital scale rather than the cup conversions. Cups are a wildly inaccurate measuring system and you will get far better, more consistent results using a scale, not to mention that it is also easier and less messy than cups!